Best Batman portrayal

[Nemeres]

Me rewatching BVS

 

[Lantern Venom]

Me rewatching BVS

That was me seeing Burt Ward as part of Crisis of Infinite Earths. Yeeaccch.

 

[Closerframe]

I was indifferent to Bale’s Batman, but I think he did the best in Batman Begins. However, I voted for Keaton.

 

[theMan-Bat]

#1 Keaton [the Batman representing elements from 1939-1989-1992 comics Batman combined], and #2 West [Silver Age Batman representing the 1950s-1960s Silver Age comics era lighter Comics Code version of Batman].

 

[Wheels]

How did Keaton represent the character out of the costume though? Especially out in public? I just think Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne covers all the bases a lot better and Burton's idea of how Bruce Wayne acts in public is not to my liking at all. He's just feels too quirky for my taste, an oddball, that's not how I'm used to seeing Wayne present himself in public.

TAS still has the most pure version of Batman though in my opinion.

 

[The Batman]

Honestly, I'm starting to think Keaton/Burton Batman is the most overrated media version of the character, especially in terms of fidelity to the comics.

The worst part is that people judge these things based off of surface level stuff.

 

[Lantern Venom]

How did Keaton represent the character out of the costume though? Especially out in public? I just think Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne covers all the bases a lot better and Burton's idea of how Bruce Wayne acts in public is not to my liking at all. He's just feels too quirky for my taste, an oddball, that's not how I'm used to seeing Wayne present himself in public.

TAS still has the most pure version of Batman though in my opinion.

I rewatched TDK recently, and I never get tired of watching the Dent fundraiser scene where Bale goes from pontificating party host to vigilante after Joker crashed the scene. Watching him stride down the hallway while he disassembles the gun is just the quintessential Bruce Wayne-into-Batman transformation.

When it comes to live-action adaptations of DC characters, Bale and Ledger would be the top 2, and they were both in the same film. That's one of the main reasons that TDK might always stand as DC's crowning moment.

 

[TheGuy]

Bale is winning the poll by a landslide, as he should.

1. Bale
2. West
3. Affleck
4. Keaton
5. Kilmer
6. Clooney

 

[Josh Ward]

I'd go
1. Bale
2. Kilmer
3. Keaton
4. West
5. Clooney
6. Affleck

 

[theMan-Bat]

How did Keaton represent the character out of the costume though? Especially out in public? I just think Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne covers all the bases a lot better and Burton's idea of how Bruce Wayne acts in public is not to my liking at all. He's just feels too quirky for my taste, an oddball, that's not how I'm used to seeing Wayne present himself in public.

TAS still has the most pure version of Batman though in my opinion.

Mr. Keaton's Bruce Wayne is like Howard Hughes - an eccentric recluse billionaire. His name is famous, for his wealth, Wayne Enterprises, and his fundraising charity balls, with a gambling casino in the Wayne Mansion seen in Batman (1989), and attending Shreck's annual masquerade ball in Batman Returns, which would project a partying high society bachelor reputation, but he's really a reclusive guy so that the general public don't easily recognize him if they do see him. I like that quiet calculating air of mystery about him, and of course he's got things to hide. I never get tired of watching the Vale apartment scene where Keaton goes from Vale's estranged suitor to vigilante after Joker crashed the scene. Watching him swing Vicki's iron fire place implement as a weapon to strike the Joker is just the quintessential Bruce Wayne-into-Batman transformation for me. Bob Kane said in his autobiography Batman & Me, "I critiqued one of the first versions of Sam Hamm's script. There were flaws in it that I spotted and they were corrected. For example, Hamm had made Bruce Wayne into a wimp in front of the Joker, and had him grovelling on the floor to save his life. The Joker asked Bruce if he should kill him or Vicki. Bruce replied that he should kill Vicki. I told the producers that Bruce Wayne wouldn't grovel to anybody because he's really Batman." So instead Bruce Wayne swung Vicki's iron fire place implement as a weapon to strike the Joker. In Fantazone #1 (1989) Sam Hamm explained, "With Nicholson poised to come aboard, he [Tim Burton] didn't want a stiff as Bruce Wayne, because Nicholson would eat him alive. He wanted an actor who could have the same intensity range as Nicholson." Honestly, I'm starting to think Keaton/Burton's Batman is the most underrated, underappreciated media version of the character by certain people here, as is George Reeves' Superman [the Superman representing elements from 1938-1958 comics Superman combined]. Bale's Bruce's public persona was Cain's Alfred's idea in Batman Begins, which is really not to my liking that Michael Cain's Alfred and Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox did a lot of the thinking for Bale's Bruce. Bale's Bruce asks, "What does someone like me do?" Cain's Alfred says, "Drive sports cars, date movie stars. Buy things that are not for sale. Who knows, you start pretending to have fun you might even have a little by accident."

Batman: The Animated Series is still great fun but is also frustrating to me because of the children's television show restrictions they had from standards and practices.

 

[The Batman]

"Under Appreciated" and "underrated" are not words I'd use to describe Keaton. Not in these parts, anyway. He is currently second place on this poll. Nowadays, I'd personally rank him as the third best Batman.

Compared to everyone else, Keaton currently receives the least amount of scrutiny and nitpicking, despite his Batman having significant alterations from the source material.

 

[Wheels]

My impression is Keaton usually is the 2nd most popular.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I feel like Keaton’s Batman was the best in terms of the voice, presence and the suit. He’s lacking in other areas like the physique (sorry, but Batman is one character that needs to look like a powerhouse IMO) and fighting ability. The latter may have been due to limited mobility in the costume though. His Bruce Wayne was also good but I feel like Bale edges him out there; Bale’s Bruce felt like the comic book version come to life, at least to me. So in terms of the overall character Batman/Bruce/“Public” Bruce, I would put Bale at the top of my list. But just Batman alone, I would go with Keaton.

West was good for the zany version he played, and he suited the character at the time. Affleck, Kilmer and Clooney were all somewhere between mediocre and awful.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Best overall portrayal was Christian Bale

Best look but lacking the quality material was Ben Affleck

My favorite is Michael Keaton

 

[theMan-Bat]

What I meant by underrated is that I feel Michael Keaton's Batman should be numero uno, and you have that right to choose whomever as your #1 guy. Bale's has significant alterations from the source material. They both have alterations from the source material. Which has more alterations from the source material?

Young Bale Bruce's parents took him to see an opera called Mefistofele.
Bale Bruce's father was mugged by a presumably homeless Joe Chill in a mugging turned panicked double murder. Chill was quickly caught by the police and arrested.
Bale's Bruce tried to murder Joe Chill but Carmine Falcone has Chill assassinated, for testifying against cellmate Falcone.
Bale's Bruce was trained by Ra's al Ghul.
Bale's Bruce was given his Nomex survival suit, utility harness, grapple gun, memory cloth cape, the Tumbler, Batpod, The Bat etc. by Lucius Fox - the head of environmental procedures, defense projects, consumer products - all prototypes in the Applied Sciences Division and Fox is the CEO of Wayne Enterprises.
Alfred comes up with the idea of ordering parts of the cowls from Singapore, via a dummy corporation and then separately place an order to a Chinese company for the ears for the cowl. Cain's Alfred says they'll have to be large orders, to avoid suspicion. 10,000. Bale's Bruce looks shocked and dumbfounded and says "Well, at least we'll have sparse." Cain's Alfred figures out that there is a problem with the graphite in the mask. The next 10,000 will be up to specifications.
Alfred saves Bale's Bruce while he's hallucinating from Scarecrow's fear toxin.
Scarecrow is an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist with a potato sack on his head, not a collage professor of psychology. The fear toxin is made by Ra's al Ghul, not by Scarecrow.
Ra's al Ghul burns down Wayne Manor.
Alfred saves Bale's Bruce from the fire in Wayne Manor.
Lucius Fox saves Gotham City by synthesizing an antidote to the fear toxin.
Lucius Fox also saves Gotham City by figuring out about the microwave emitter scheme.
Rachel Dawes defeats Scarecrow with her taser.
Joker is a bomber wearing clown makeup. Bombed a hospital, bombed a city jail, bombed a judge's car, bombed a warehouse, tried to bomb two ferryboats.
Joker creates Two-Face.
Half of Two-Face's face is burned off by fire, not acid scarred.
Bale's Batman frames himself for the murders Two-Face committed and retires for 8 years to preserve a false image of Harvey Dent as an incorruptible heroic District Attorney.
Bane makes Bale's Bruce bankrupt.
Selina the Cat is a hacker spy hired by Bane.
Talia stabs Bale's Batman and tries to detonate a bomb.
Bale's Bruce happily re-retires in Italy with Selina once he’s found a replacement. No oath to avenge his parents by spending the rest of his life warring on crime.
Robin John Blake becomes the replacement Batman.

Young Michael Keaton Bruce's parents took him to see a movie called Footlight Frenzy.
Keaton Bruce's mother was mugged by Joe Chill and the Waynes were murdered by Jack Napier. [In Comics Interview #77 (1990) DC writer Jack C. Harris asked Batman (1989) producer Michael Uslan, "Was the other man in the alley on the night the Wayne's murder suppose to be Joe Chill?" Michael Uslan explained, "Yes. In fact you'll recall that it was Chill who grabbed Bruce's mother's necklace." Harris asked Uslan, "Did you agree with the change to Sam Hamm's script by Warren Skarren to make the Joker the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents?" Michael Uslan explained, "Yes. In fact, and you'll have to check this with Bob Kane, I think he [Bob Kane] said that if the Joker had been created earlier [in 1939], he would have been the Wayne's killer in the comics, as well."]
Keaton's Bruce was presumably trained by Chinese martial artist Chu Chin Li, Tsunetomo and French Detective Henri Ducard, according to Batman (1989) screenwriter Sam Hamm's Blind Justice (1989).
Keaton's Bruce presumably secretly invented his Batsuit, utility belt, grapple gun, etc., the Batmobile [Batmissile], Batwing and Batskiboat as top secret experimental designs at the Wayne Technologies extension of the Wayne Enterprises Corporation. [In Comics Scene #9 (1989) Michael Keaton explained, "The coolest thing about Batman to me was that he wasn't your typical superhero. He has no superpowers and basically has to rely on his intelligence to create things that will protect him." The official Warner Books Batman Returns novelization by Craig Shaw Gardner explains that Max Shreck payed to get the blueprints of the Batmobile "from a disgruntled former employee of the car's designer. The Penguin let the businessman handle that sort of particular." And in Batman Returns we see Keaton's Bruce repairing the Batmobile himself in the cave.]
Keaton's Bruce is a member of Gotham City's Democrats club.
As the mysterious vigilante Batman, he's terrifying superstitious criminals into believing that he is a supernatural giant bat that drinks blood and can't be killed.
Keaton's Bruce had a relationship with photographer Vicki Vale.
The hood Jack Napier was robbing Axis Chemicals and he found himself cornered by Batman on one of the factory's catwalks, and he fell into the vat of chemicals that turned his skin chalk-white, his hair green -- with a perpetual freakish grin -- he named himself -- the Joker! Then he resumed his criminal career under that name.
[Batman (1989) scriptwriter Sam Hamm explained in Amazing Heroes #159 (1989), "The origin sequence is very similar to what is seen in the comic books. He and his gang are surprised by the police at a staged robbery at Axis Chemicals - which was changed from Ace Chemicals for legal reasons - and Batman intervenes. The thug who will become the Joker is dumped into a vat. He emerges in his full horrific glory. Jack Napier is not a nod to Jack Nicholson [nor a tribute to Alan Napier]. It's actually a play on the word jackanapes, in the same vein that the Riddler's name was E. Nigma [a play on the word enigma]." In the book Jack's Life: A Biography by Patrick McGilligan, it's explained, "Talking with Bob Kane, Nicholson learned that Kane had based the Joker on a character played by Conrad Veidt in a 1928 movie, The Man Who Laughs. The Veidt character wears a perpetual freakish grin because as a boy his check muscles were slit. Nicholson made an effort to track down the silent picture, directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, and watched it for pointers."]
The Joker murders with a grisly venom he calls Smylex, which, as it snuffed the life out of each gasping victim, contracted the muscles of the doomed man's face into a ghastly grin, the sign of death from the Joker! The Joker feels that is turning murder into art.
Ironically, he uses 'jokes' as deadly weapons -- for example, a hand buzzer that electrocutes, a phony flower that squirts acid.
The Joker vandalizes art [like Cesar Romero's Joker].
Batman gave Vale his manila envelope with 50 sheets of paper to take to the Gotham Globe, full of chemical equations and lists of woman's beauty products and hygiene products that the Joker had poisoned with Smylex, and that the poison works when the products are worn together. The Gotham Globe reports, "Batman Cracks Joker's Poison Code!"
Keaton's Batman saves Gotham City from the Joker.
Keaton's Bruce has a relationship with Selina Kyle and Keaton's Batman fights Catwoman.
Keaton's Bruce figured out that the Penguin already knew who his parents were, and was at the Hall of Records to make a list of the names of children to kidnap and murder. While researching old Gotham Globe newspapers Keaton's Bruce discovered that numerous reports of missing children in several towns was the reason police closed down the Red Triangle Circus's fair-grounds, folded the tents. However, one performer vanished before he could be questioned. Keaton's Bruce deduced that the Arctic World pavilion was Penguin's hideout now.
The Penguin rarely appears in public without at least one of his trick umbrellas, including umbrellas which fire bullets, sword-handled umbrellas, a flamethrower umbrella, and a helicopter umbrella. [In the book Batman Returns: The Official Movie Book (1992) by Michael Singer, Tim Burton explained, "I feel like a real kindred spirit with Danny [DeVito], and I think we're really creating something that people will see and enjoy as a natural expansion of the comic book character."]
The Penguin runs for mayor [like Burgess Meredith's Penguin].
Keaton's Batman quickly figures out that the Penguin is now using penguins he can control by headgear, using a pitch and frequency that would cause penguins to follow his every command, like zombies to the Penguin's radio signal controls, with rockets on their backs. Batman's Batskiboat homed in on the coordinates, Alfred at a console in the Batcave jammed the frequency and turn them around to return to the Arctic World.
Keaton's Batman, with a little help from Alfred, saved Gotham City from the Penguin.

 

[Frodo]

With all the talk of Snyder JL cuts, what's been forgotten over a generation is that there were several scenes cut out for the theatrical version of Batman and Robin.

Like BF, I think the scenes were cut out for running time purposes. I think Forever deleted much more but there were quite a few scenes and snippets of dialog taken out of Batman and Robin as well.

I only remember a few of them.

One of them is when Batman and Robin leave the Batcave in the opening scene. The two of them have dialog together briefly as they're traveling through the tunnel. I think that scene is in one of the trailers for Batman and Robin.

Another deleted scene was during the opening fight at the museum . Once Batman kicks the freeze gun out of Mr Freeze's hands , Batman says " Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with guns!". If you notice, in the final version, Batman's lips begin to move once he catches the freeze gun, but there's a quick sudden cut of Freeze regain the leverage.

Another scene was when Julie Madison breaks up with Bruce at the party where Gordon falls under Ivy's spell. Apparently after Bruce senses Ivy's dust he was supposed have fawned all over , at which point, Julie gets jealous and breaks up with him in front of everyone.

Then Bruce would snap out of it and realize that Isley was Poison Ivy. That's why in the film version, he confronts Robin in the Batcave still in his dinner tux.

I think some other scenes fleshed out more stuff with Alfred's brother.

 

[theMan-Bat]

There is one deleted scene on the Batman & Robin DVD special edition called Alfred's Lost Love that was trying to give a Barbara Wilson backstory. That movie killed off the Bat franchise. I rank George Clooney as the worst Batman portrayal.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I just think it all boils down to...

West - Keaton - Bale

...all for various reasons. They truly did each capture key aspects of the Batman character from different eras of the comic book and each had the biggest impact on popular culture, framing the character for each generation.

Conroy deserves his place alongside the three of them, certainly.

The other actors are just fine, but only those fours actors helped define the character for the general public and shaped the mythos.

 

[Frodo]

There is one deleted scene on the Batman & Robin DVD special edition called Alfred's Lost Love that was trying to give a Barbara Wilson backstory. That movie killed off the Bat franchise. I rank George Clooney as the worst Batman portrayal.

Wow. I've never seen that scene before. It at least makes the whole Barbara and Alfred relationship clearer..

Doesn't make the film better but it at least makes that bit of nonsense a little clearer.

 

[Fincher]

Wow. I've never seen that scene before. It at least makes the whole Barbara and Alfred relationship clearer..

Doesn't make the film better but it at least makes that bit of nonsense a little clearer.

I don't know, I feel like any scene that isn't stupid b******t would make the movie at least a little better. Also, Alicia Silverstone being hot. If that scene was kept in the movie, I think I'd raise it from a (high) 4 out of 10 to a (low) 5 out of 10, so out of bad territory at least.

 

[Rorschach2012]

All this talk of alternate scenes is making me wish fans would rally behind “ReleasetheSchumacherCut”. Batman Forever would be a vastly different film with the deleted scenes back in.

I recognize that Kilmer is not the best Batman, but BF is probably my favorite Batman movie. It’s not the best, just the most enjoyable for me.

 

[BattleCat]

Bale has the best movies by far, but the mouth breathing and voice takes me out of it a bit.

 

[Herofan]

Chill was quickly caught by the police and arrested.

Definitely a big change, an example of how Nolan wanted his Batman to be really noble, interested in overall justice and the wellbeing of the whole city rather than being a lot about personal revenge.

Rachel Dawes defeats Scarecrow with her taser.

LOL, I'm really not sure why that was done other than irony/comic relief and just being a lot more interested in Batman fighting against Ra's. A disappointing end to the character but he's still well-done otherwise.

Joker creates Two-Face.
Half of Two-Face's face is burned off by fire, not acid scarred.

Those were changes in details that felt pretty true to the characters and stories in general.

Bale's Batman frames himself for the murders Two-Face committed and retires for 8 years to preserve a false image of Harvey Dent as an incorruptible heroic District Attorney.

Bale's Bruce happily re-retires in Italy with Selina once he’s found a replacement. No oath to avenge his parents by spending the rest of his life warring on crime.

Those definitely did cause a lot more criticism, going against the comics characterization like that led to more love it-or-hate it reactions.

 

[Wheels]

Unpopular opinion: Bale's Batman voice is great.

It's really fun to do as well.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Keaton is my #1 Batman. He balanced Bruce and Bats very well.